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April 2008 Becoming stewards of oral and planetary health. Reflect for a moment, on the set up for a typical hygiene appointment: The dental chair is covered with a plastic barrier that is thrown away after each patient; ditto for the light handle covers. Each instrument is unwrapped from its individual sterilization bag, which is made from virgin paper and plastic derived from scarce petroleum. Seating our patient, we pull out the standard 2-ply paper, 1-ply plastic “bib,” which we toss into the garbage after the patient leaves. Now, consider that each dental office sees an average of 17 patients per day and works an average of 240 days per year. This means that each dental office dumps into our landfills nearly 4,000 chair barriers, light handle covers and patient bibs each year, and nearly 10,000 instrument pouches each year.1 Multiply that by the approximately 170,000 private dental practices in the U.S. today and you’ll be astounded to discover that 680 million chair barriers, light handle covers and patient bibs, and 1.7 billion instrument pouches are thrown away each year by the dental profession. Confronted by this daunting environmental impact, one dental office set out, in 2003, to craft a more eco-friendly way of practicing dentistry. Transcendentist and the office of Dr. Fred Pockrass is located in Berkeley, California, and is the first dental office in the country to be certified as a green business.2 Its practices are so Earth-friendly that it is the only dental office in Berkeley that doesn’t need a hazardous waste permit to operate.
DERAILING DISPOSABLES In place of the plastic chair barrier, Transcendentist uses a cloth headrest cover that it had specially designed, and wipes and disinfects its chairs with a neo-natal grade disinfectant that is non-toxic and biodegradable. The plastic light handle covers are replaced with an ingenious cloth cover, which affixes to the light handle using Velcro. Instruments also are sterilized in cloth, using steam sterilization methods. Its patient bibs are made from a blend of bamboo and organic cotton, a fabric combination chosen because bamboo is a fast-growing, renewable resource that absorbs five times more greenhouse gases than trees, and because bamboo has natural anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties, making it an excellent fit for dentistry. All cloth items are washed and dried on-site in energy efficient machines, using natural and biodegradable detergents, which meet OSHA standards. According to a recent study, dental offices can save more than $2000 annually by making the shift to cloth dental office products.3 To help other dental offices make the transition to more earth-friendly practices, Transcendentist is now offering these products for sale on its web site.4 Using cloth items also saves hygienists time and makes for a more enjoyable client experience. “It’s much quicker for me to wrap all of my instruments together in the cloth towels, which I call my sterilization ‘burritos,’ than it is to individually wrap,” says eco-hygienist Vanessa Sorrells, RDH. “And, after the instruments are sterilized, I simply open the cloth wrap and my tray is ready to go. I notice how much more comfortable my patients are being covered in a soft cloth ‘bib.’ It helps encourage compliance with our hygiene recommendations and makes patients feel more relaxed and at ease.”
OTHER ECO ALTERNATIVES Transcendentist has instituted many other eco-friendly practices. Among them are: * All of the lights in the office have been converted to high-efficiency fluorescents, saving 2,645 kilowatts of electrical energy each year, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1,375 pounds a year. The conversion saves the practice more than $600 a year in energy costs. In addition, all of the electrical energy used in the office is offset by the purchase of wind power credits. * The office is virtually paperless, and uses the integrated Dentrix software to manage patient scheduling and billing, as well as clinical charting, and uses digital imaging. The digital imaging system not only exposes patients to 75 to 90% less radiation than traditional x-rays, it eliminates the need for toxic x-ray development chemicals and lead foils, which add more pollution to our landfills and further strain our water system. * To capture old amalgam fillings that are removed, the office installed an amalgam separator, and chose a company that ensures that the mercury-containing waste is not shipped overseas to be dumped into another ocean, but rather, securely bound in concrete. If every dental office in the country installed an amalgam separator, between 250,000 and 500,000 pounds of mercury-containing waste would be kept out of our air and water supplies each year. * In the waiting lounge—which was designed for patient comfort—furniture is made from recycled woods, stuffed with a natural material called kapok, and the walls are painted with a paint containing none of the toxic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that contribute to poor indoor air quality and respiratory ailments. Disposable paper cups are replaced with re-usable glasses and mugs, diverting waste from the landfill and saving the practice almost $200 a year. * After appointments, patients are provided with a reusable organic cloth lunch bag, printed with vegetable-based inks, which contains a give-away toothbrush whose handle is made of 100% recycled plastic, there-by reducing plastic waste and eliminating the need to use additional oil resources.
YOU’RE NOT ALONE! To share the benefits and ease of their eco-friendly practices, the founders of Transcendentist recently established the Eco-Dentistry Association (EDA). This new membership association offers everyone in the dental profession the opportunity to implement eco-friendly practices without having to “reinvent the wheel.” The EDA also is a powerful connection to the growing market of U.S. dental patients who are increasingly choosing their service providers based upon their environmental stewardship. It’s important for each to do what we can to preserve our planet, and to expand our leadership role from preventative oral care to preventative planetary care. Ina Pockrass is a branding and marketing expert and practiced law for 18 years. Transcendentist, Inc. was co-founded by Ina and Dr. Fred Pockgrass in 2002. A driving force behind eco-dentistry™, the comprehensive approach to sustainability for healing practitioners, Ina is chair of the Board of Directors of Circle of Life, the organization founded by Julia Butterfly Hill, the woman who brought attention to the destruction of old-growth forests by living in an ancient redwood for more than two years. Ina also serves on the Steering Committee for Sustainable Berkeley, a coalition of government, businesses and non-profits committed to making Berkeley the greenest city in the country. She is also a former board member of the Sustainable Business Alliance.
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